Baseball Historians

 
The Cubs continued their Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde act, this time in Tampa, after an 8-3 loss.
It was the first time this season that Chicago had lost three straight games, so the losing streak isn’t that alarming. It’s actually impressive that the team went this long before its first three-game losing streak.
What’s alarming, and […]

On Tuesday, Cubs manager Lou Piniella decided to tweak the lineup and insert Kosuke Fukudome into the leadoff spot.
Fukudome promptly grounded out on the first pitch of the game.
It’s been that kind of week for the Chicago.

The Cubs won another game, 7-2 over the Braves, in front of a friendly crowd at Wrigley. Ho hum.
 
The real news of last night’s game was the loss of leftfielder Alfonso Soriano, who broke his ring finger after being hit by a pitch in the second inning. All estimates point to a six week absence […]

 
Let’s cut to the chase. The Cubs are really good this year, at least record wise. Thanks to a 9-6 win over the Padres Tuesday night, the team’s ninth straight win, Chicago has the most wins in the Majors and leads the central division by 3.5 games over St. Louis. The Cubs haven’t won this […]

 
After not feeling so hot over the weekend I’m ready to get back into the swing of things and there’s not better time than now to pick up where I left off. The Cubs proved once again that you can go home again and that it’s probably a good idea to do so. Chicago finished […]

 Phil Velasquez/TRIBUNE PHOTO
You know you’re getting old when you start putting lame things like family first in your life. Take me for instance. I’m a young, strapping young man at the ripe age of 22. I love my family, but if I had the opportunity to, say, work at the New York Times or the […]

 
Kosuke Fukudome has had a rough May. Going into Tuesday night’s ball game Fukudome was hitting a pedestrian .256, down from his .305 average during the first month of the season.
But the power of his very own bobblehead day inspired Mr. Fukudome to blow up, going 2-for-3 with a walk and RBI during the Cubs’ […]

 
The Cubs were back where they belonged, playing an afternoon game at Wrigley Field. And as they’ve done 19 other times this season, they won a game, this time a 3-1 win over the Dodgers.
Chicago is now 20-8 at home this season and its no surprise the Cubs played so well on the first game […]

  John Heller/AP
The way things have been going between the Pirates and the Cubs you’d thing the more they’d play, the worse off Pittsburgh would be. But that wasn’t the case Saturday night when the Pirates edged out a 5-4 win over the Cubs in 14 innings.
Kerry Wood blew his fourth save of the year and […]

 
Claude McKay may know a thing or two about the Cubs’ troubles. They still haven’t figured out this whole winning on the road thing. Following an 8-2 homestand, Chicago had a great opportunity to use that momentum to win its first series on the road since the second week of April. Instead, the Cubs dropped […]

 
Why does Ryan Dempster look so stressed? He’s probably upset about giving up a fourth-inning grand slam to Houston’s Hunter Pence. Or that he walked two batters leading up to the grand salami. Or that his potent offense disappeared in a park made for an explosive offense. Regardless, he’s upset after a 4-2 loss to […]

 
I never hit an inside-the-park home run in my baseball playing days, but I did hit a triple once and as I rounded second, the sight of third base was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It wasn’t because I was excited about getting my first triple. I was just so damn happy […]

Aside from eating, sleeping and playing videogames there aren’t too many things I loved to do six years ago that I’m still doing now.
Baseball? Like most, my career ended at high school graduation. Hanging out with my freinds? Gas is much to expensive to drive around and no friend is worth more than $4 a […]

 
 After a 10-game homestand, North Siders must say goodbye (sniff) to their team for seven whole days while they make two road trips to Houston and then, yes, Pittsburgh. But before the Cubs left for the week, they made sure to end the homestand on a good note with a 4-3 win over the Pirates.
Chicago […]

 
The “cut Soriano” faction of Cubs Nation is getting quieter with each passing day. Chicago’s No.1 hitter led off Friday afternoon’s game with another home run (his third lead off home run in four games) and jacked a three-run home run in his second at bat during a 7-4 win over the Pirates. Better known […]

 
I could go into Ryan Dempter’s impressive 12 strike outs in 8-1/3 innings. Or the Cubs’ sixth win in seven games, a 4-0 shutout over the Padres, Thursday. But who cares about all that. It was the first day of the Jim Edmonds era in Chicago.
So, what did we learn from Edmonds’ first day on […]

 
I’m new to Cub fandom, so I’m pretty indifferent to the Jim Edmonds deal. While I’ve always hated the Cardinals, I never had a problem with Edmonds. In fact, I sorta-kinda respected him as a defensive player. But I’m not going to defend the Cubs’ decision to go after the guy.
First and foremost, Cubs fans […]

 
The Cubs stormed out of the gate but then stumbled along the rest of the way during a 4-3 loss to the Padres.
Chicago scored three runs in the first two innings thanks to a leadoff home run from Alfonso Soriano (his 4th career lead off dinger) and a two-run double in the second inning from […]

 
The only thing more surprising than the Cubs sweeping Arizona this weekend was Jay Mariotti writing something positive about the team. Well, sort of.
While Mariotti downplays the whole idea of revenge (I say screw it and play it up big time!), he does grudgingly acknowledge there is a pretty good baseball team on the North […]

They say revenge is a dish best served cold. So it was fitting that a chill hung over Wrigley Field while the Cubs completed a three-game sweep of the Diamonbacks with a 6-4 win. In case you forgot, (which is highly unlikely), Arizona was the team completing a three-game sweep in October during last year’s […]

 
 The Cubs started their longest home stand of the season (10 games) Friday afternoon and it didn’t take long for them to get comfy.
After Arizona’s Chris Young went yard off Ted Lilly, again, to give the D-Backs a 1-0 lead, the lefty starter was lights out and Chicago went on to win 3-1.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Alfonso Soriano has the second-worst on-base percentage of any playing leading off in the National League. On the Cubs alone, Soriano has the third worst percentage. But that means nothing to GM Jim Hendry.
On Wednesday he publicly defended Lou Piniella’s decision to keep Soriano in the lead off spot:

 
Welcome back to the starting rotation Jon Leiber. You’ve been missed by fans and Major League hitters alike.
Lieber probably needed a hug after giving up four home runs in the first inning to the Reds. Even if that hug came from a giant flesh-eating wild animal.
But give him credit. He lasted one more inning than most […]

Cubs manager Lou Piniella finally heard my calls for change and started Ronny Cedeno at second base Tuesday night. Sure, Cedeno committed an error, even though he is suppposed to be much better at second base than Mark Fontenot. But not to worry Cubs nation. Cedeno is the better option at second base.
Firstly, he’s hitting […]

 
Ten years to the day Kerry Wood struck out 20 batters in a game, Carlos Zambrano was just as dominant.
Striking out three.
Zambrano came up huge for the Cubs, providing a spark that has been lacking the last couple of weeks with the exception of Zambrano starts. Big Z scattered three hits over eight innings and […]

 
Mike Fontenot looks like he’s about 16. And high. Which probably explains his decision to try and score from third base in the ninth inning with one out and the Cubs trailing 5-3.
The ball didn’t get as far away from the catcher as he thought and Fontenot was easily thrown out at home, leaving it up […]

Rich Hill we hardly knew thee. No, seriously, we hardly do know thee.
Last year Hill went 11-8 and struck out 183 batters (a team best) during his first ful season with the club. To begin this season Hill has an ERA over four and has walked 18 guys in 19-2/3 innings. So, which pitcher is […]

 
Ronny Cedeno will not be ignored.
After hitting .383 with a .473 on-base percentage in 22 games, manager Lou Piniella has to come up with a way to get Cedeno’s bat in the lineup.

 
Jason Marquis, with a chance to salvage the series and stick it to his former employer, was as effective as anger management courses for Lou Piniella during the Cubs’ 5-3 loss to St. Louis Sunday night. He allowed five runs and notched five walks over 5-1/3 innings. Fittingly, his ERA is now over five. And […]

The above picture was taken just moments before Kerry Wood threw the first pitch of the ninth inning during Thursday afternoon’s game. I bet you can guess what happened next.
No, Craig Counsell didn’t line one back up the middle, sending Wood’s glove, hat and clothing flying in all different directions. But he might as well.
Wood […]